Traditionally, Chinese tea brewing emphasized the color, smell, and taste of the brewed tea. Chinese tea brewing is believed to be a form of art that requires the pleasure of enjoying the material, size and shape of the tea brewer. Brewing Chinese tea requires the right amount of tealeaves, hot water, and brewing time to soak the tealeaves in the hot water. If the tealeaves soak in the water too long, the tea water becomes bitter or astringent. The quantity of tea made each time should not be too voluminous, otherwise the art of making Chinese tea is lost. The tea made is for the enjoyment of the flavor of the tea itself. It requires special attention to the optimal amount of tea brewed, the optimal ratio of water to tea, the optimal amount of steeping time, and the optimal material of the tea brewer. Under the traditional Chinese brewing techniques, clay, purple clay and porcelain are favorably used as materials for the tea brewer. The hot water brewer is a separate mechanism not connected to the tea brewer so that brewing tea itself is not complicated or bulky. The amount of tea brewed is not voluminous so that the flavor of tea can be tasteful and with natural fragrance. However, determination and control of the amount of tealeaves, the amount of hot water, and the right amount of brewing time to obtain the optimal flavor of tea brewed has been a constant challenge. For example, if the tealeaves soak in the water too long, the tea becomes bitter or astringent. Current systems and methods of making traditional Chinese tea suffer from a number of disadvantages.
One of the traditional ways to brew Chinese tea is using a small teapot with a handle on one side and a spout on the other side. Occasionally there is a filter inside the teapot around the opening of the spout to prevent tealeaves from going into the spout when the brewed tea is poured out from the teapot. In this kind of traditional tea brewing, tealeaves are put into the teapot and hot water is added. It is up to each individual person's experience to determine the amount of tealeaves and the length of time for the hot water to steep the tealeaves. When it is determined that the time is sufficient to steep the tealeaves, brewed tea was poured from the teapot. The problem with this traditional way to brew a Chinese tea is that it relies on each individual person's experience to determine the amount of tealeaves, the amount of water, and the length of time for the hot water to steep the tealeaves. This results in inconsistent brewing time. Another problem is that once the time is determined, forgetting to pour brewed tea from the teapot at the predetermined time results in the tealeaves being soaked in the water too long. When tealeaves are soaked in the water too long, the tea becomes bitter or astringent. A further inconvenience is that there is a need to tilt the teapot in a certain way, or press the lid firmly, while pouring out the brewed tea so that the lid of the teapot does not drop when the teapot is tilted for pouring.
Another conventional method is to use a second, larger teapot. After the tea is brewed in the traditional teapot, the brewing teapot is tilted with its spout being inserted into the upper opening of the larger teapot, with the brewing teapot resting on the larger teapot in this position until the brewed tea poured completely into the larger teapot. Then the brewing teapot was taken away. With this method, the inconvenience of holding the teapot in a certain position is avoided, and the inconvenience of using a hand to press firm the lid while pouring tea is avoided. However, this device still requires the user to remember the time to pour the tea out of the tea brewer for purpose of separating the soaked tealeaves from the tea brewed to avoid tealeaves being steeped too long.
Another conventional device is using a cup with holes to sit inside the teapot. When the tea is done brewing, the cup is taken out of the teapot, and the brewed tea remains inside the teapot. By this way, there is no need to pour the brewed tea from the teapot, and the inconvenience to the user of holding his or her hand in a certain way, or using the other hand to press firm the lid while the tea was pouring, is avoided. However, this device still requires the user to remember the time to take the cup out of the tea brewer for purpose of separating the soaked tealeaves from the tea brewed at due time to avoid the tealeaves being steeped too long.
Another conventional device is using a cup to sit in the teapot with a hole at the bottom of the cup. The hole is initially in a closed position. When the tea is done brewing, the hole is opened allowing the brewed tea to discharge rapidly into the bottom of the teapot. In this method, there is no need to pour the brewed tea from the teapot, and the inconvenience to the user of holding his or her hand in a certain way, or using the other hand to press firm the lid while the tea was pouring, is avoided. However, this device still requires the user to remember to press the bottom to allow the brewed tea to be discharged and to separate the soaked tealeaves from the tea brewed to avoid the tealeaves being steeped too long.
Another conventional device also uses a cup to sit in the teapot with two tiers of bottoms, each with a hole. When the tealeaves are steeped, the two holes are not in line; thus, the bottom of the cup is in closed position. When the tea is done brewing, the cup was turned to a position that the two holes are in line so that the hole is open in the bottom of the cup and the brewed tea is discharged rapidly into the bottom of the teapot. In this method, there is no need to pour the brewed tea from the teapot, and the inconvenience to the user of holding his or her hand in a certain way, or using the other hand to press firm the lid while the tea was pouring, is avoided. However, this device still requires the user to remember to activate the hole to allow the brewed tea to be discharged and to separate the soaked tealeaves from the brewed tea at due time to avoid the tealeaves being brewed too long.
Thus, making high quality tea according to the traditional Chinese method is time consuming. After tealeaves are put into the teapot and hot water is added to the teapot, it requires careful monitoring to ensure proper brewing time. If the proper brewing time is not applied, the tealeaves soak in the water too long and the brewed tea loses the right flavor. Thus, making a traditional Chinese tea requires attention to time and the additional motion of pouring the brewed tea out of the teapot or separating the soaked tealeaves from the brewed tea, by either placing the tea brewer on top of another teapot, taking the cup out of the teapot, pressing a bottom to open a hole, or turning the cup to open a hole. Such detailed attention is not practical for most people. As a result, people settle for tea of inferior quality. The conventional devices fail to address these problems. Representative prior art structures demonstrate the limitations of existing technology and point up the advantages of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,327 describes a teapot with an infuser to carry tealeaves. While this structure allows loose tea to be infused while preventing tealeaves from leaving the pot with the stream of brewed tea, it does not address the problem of automatically brewing tea at the right time and separating the tealeaves from the brewed tea. This structure also requires the brewed tea be poured out of the teapot.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,948,618 describes a method for brewing coffee using a water reservoir above a conical shaped coffee holding member with an apex opening and a receptacle to collect the brewed coffee. While this structure allows a separation of coffee grounds from the brew, which has requirements that are distinct from those of traditional Chinese tea. Brewed coffee is heavy and more ideally suited for the purpose of adding a proper amount of sugar and cream to achieve its optimum favor. Traditional Chinese tea is brewed not for the purpose of adding sugar or creme. Coffee ground normally is brewed only once, whereas in traditional Chinese tea, tealeaves are brewed up to five times, with three times being optimal. The requirements of optimal ratio of tealeaves to water and optimal tea steeping time are more stringent than brewing coffee.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,482 describes an appliance for brewing coffee or tea where water is received in a reservoir and heated and the resulting steam is passed to a container for holding coffee or tea with an overflow port. When used with tea, the brewed tea reaches the overflow port, overflowing liquid drops into the receptacle and is cooled by ice therein to form iced tea. While this structure allows a separation of the liquid from the ingredient, the appliance focuses mainly on coffee or iced tea, which has requirements distinct from those of traditional Chinese tea. Brewed coffee normally is heavy and more ideally suited for the purpose of adding a proper amount of sugar and cream to achieve its optimum flavor, and iced tea is more ideally suited for adding ices. Traditional Chinese tea is not brewed for the purpose of adding sugar or creme or ice. Coffee ground normally is brewed only once, whereas in traditional Chinese tea, tealeaves are brewed up to five times, with three times being optimal. The requirements of optimal ratio of tealeaves to water and optimal tea steeping time are more stringent with Chinese tea that when brewing coffee. This device emphasizes the technique of automatically supplying heated water to the brewer, thus, the system is bulky and complicated and does not provide the ideal environment of making traditional Chinese tea. The amount of tealeaves to the water ratio is not calculated to obtain the optimal flavor. And the tea is made primarily for the purpose of adding ice or sugar to become iced tea, which suppresses rather than emphasizes the flavor of the tea.
European Pat. No. 0227 200 describes an apparatus where heated water is supplied over a device for holding a bed of tealeaves. Hot water remained in contact with tealeaves in the bed for a predetermined time, and the brewed tea is discharged using a siphon tube to siphon the brewed tea from lower a point to higher point. The tube is then bent over and extended downward to allow for discharge. While this structure allows hot water to remain in contact with the tealeaves for a period of time, the method used to discharge brewed tea from the tea brewer is against the natural flow of gravity and thus inconvenient and inefficient.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a tea brewer that automatically and efficiently controls the brewing time for optimum flavor of traditional Chinese tea. The present invention provides a device for automatically brewing a traditional Chinese tea at the optimal amount of brewing time, without the monitoring and other user requirements required with current systems and methods. After hot water is added to the tea brewer, the system automatically brews tea at the right time and separate the tealeaves from the brewed tea, resulting in tea of a quality ordinarily only obtained by traditional Chinese methods, but much more conveniently.